The inventive concept relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image processing method and apparatus for performing sample adaptive offset (SAO) processing.
As various hardware for reproducing and storing high resolution or high quality video content has been developed and introduced in the market, a need for a video codec for effectively encoding or decoding high resolution or high quality video content has increased. In the case of a video codec of the related art, a video is encoded by using a limited encoding method based on a coding unit having a predetermined size.
In particular, a method of adjusting a pixel value of a reconstructed image by as much as an SAO may be used during operations of encoding and decoding video in order to minimize an error between an original image and a reconstructed image. However, in the limited encoding method, the compensation performance of using the SAO may be restricted.